There isn’t a great deal to report today, even though it was very productive. We made three jackets, including the baleen whale dentary shown above. We were about a half-day behind schedule on this one, because of our usual problem--more bone. In this case the new bones are visible below and to the right of the scale bar. There were at least two ribs, and several bones I wasn’t able to identify.

Here is something we found a few days ago, but only recently cleaned up:

This is a fairly odd mammal tooth, and is unlike anything I’ve seen before at Carmel Church. It has highly compressed cutting edges along the tooth margins, and a hollow root. I don’t think it’s a dolphin, but I’m not sure; there are some relatively obscure dolphin teeth out there (someone with a copy of Lee Creek IV might be able to find this; I didn’t bring my copy with me). If it’s not a cetacean, the next most likely candidates are a seal or a terrestrial carnivore. Seals are known from Carmel Church; terrestrial carnivores are not, although they are known from elsewhere in the Calvert Formation.

Tomorrow is our last day for this excavation, as we attempt to shut down ahead of Tropical Storm Hanna.